Teabag Folding

It must be at least two years since I last did some teabag folding, although for a considerable time it was my greatest papercraft interst and I compiled a vast file of all the different folds I came across. The Circle of Crafters forum has monthly challenges for teabag folding, iris folding and general cardmaking; yesterday I noticed that the given fold for this month's challenge was one I had done long ago and decided to have a go, using it as an excuse for making yet another Christmas card! The fold is very easy but because it ends up as a 7 sided motif (made from 7 individual squares) it is very tricky to make it look symmetrical, and this one was made even worse by wanting to put a greeting in the middle! I achieved it eventually and it doesn't look too badly out of kilter if you squint at it in a poor light ;)

Let me clear up a misunderstanding for those not familiar with the technique: you do not do anything with soggy teabags. Like so many papercrafts this came from the Netherlands, where teabags are packaged individually in decorative paper bags within boxes. A Dutch lady skilled in origami remembered one morning at breakfast that she had forgotten to make her sister a birthday card for that day. She started folding the teabag packet, then another, and thus developed the method - it's described as modular origami in some books, because true origami is made from a single piece of paper whereas this uses 4, 5, 7 or 8 identically folded pieces. The border on the card shows 3 of the tiles before cutting and folding.

The tile is by Helen Jane's Designs, MS punch is Iron Gate and the circle cut with a Nestabilities Classic Circle.